Conocimientos y actitudes frente a la donación voluntaria de sangre en los usuarios del Centro de Salud El Paraíso. Cuenca 2019

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Blood donation is a global necessity. The people who come to a blood center voluntarily are the safest source of this component. For a country to supply its blood needs, it needs at least 2% of its population to donate. A figure of which 100% are expected to be voluntary donors. OBJECTIVE: To describe the knowledge and attitudes towards voluntary blood donation in users of the health center El Paraíso. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a descriptive, cross-cutting study. 337 surveys were applied among users of the El Paraíso health center. The data was tabulated and analyzed in the IBM SPSS 25.0 and Excel 2016 programs, presented in tables using frequencies and percentages. RESULTS: 93.8% of respondents believe it is important to donate blood voluntarily, however, 49.3% still believe that donated blood is marketed. Only 17.8% of users know what is minimum weight to donate blood and 31.2% know the minimum time lapse between one donation and another. The main reasons for not donating are: little information regarding donation (75.1%), medical causes (64.7%), distrust of material infertility (63.2%). On the contrary, the main reasons for donating blood are: in the face of a national catastrophe (94.9%), for a sick family member or friend (99.6%) and if you receive more information on the topic (83.4%). Finally, weight gain (56.6%) and the spread of a disease (50.6%) they stand out as major myths when it comes to donating. CONCLUSIONS: Most people have general knowledge of blood donation, however, there is an obvious deficit against specific knowledge such as requirements for donating blood. The desire to help a family member or friend, the lack of information and the contagion of a disease are the main motivator, reason not to donate and myth respectively.